I’ve always found bacon a welcome addition to my salads, haven’t you? It tends to make them feel less like an entire field of grass that I have to chew through because health, and more like a delicious, exciting and indulgent plate of fun!
And that feeling is multiplied x10 when you blam your bacon up a notch into TACO BACON!
Yes, as if the glory of bacon wasn’t enough to tempt the salad-wary or the salad-weary, I give you, Taco Bacon.
Regular, smoky, salty bacon, slicked with a sprinkling of tex-mex spices to take it across the border…or at least close to the border. And of course, I mean the US/Mexico border, because in Australia we border NO ONE.
I simply stirred together some cumin, smoked paprika and oregano for my spice rub, but a pre-made ‘taco seasoning’ mix would be totally fine. Or whatever your house blend is, if you’re the type of person who has a ‘house blend’ of taco seasoning.
Also, if you are that kind of person, can I come over to your house? I want to see how many kinds of olive oil you own. And what your kombucha fermentation process is like.
For the rest of us non-Kombucha-fermenting (or even drinking) folks, this is a damn good way to get a small head of lettuce into your body. Along with plenty of gorgeous, creamy Avocado and plenty of juicily popping cherry tomatoes, and those shards of spiced bacon.
And obviously, if carb-avoidance is not on your list of priorities, a handful of croutons would be more than welcome here. Or hey, just take a pair of tongs and stuff this salad into a baguette – that would make for a hell of a picnic lunch.
But otherwise, this salad has that double-whammy of being totally delicious, so it’s fun to eat, but it’s also pretty good for you so you get to feel grown up and brimming with health as well! Which makes this perfect for eating on the couch, in front of some awesome TV – I feel that a bacon salad calls for some Gilmore Girls, no?
Otherwise, take this with you to any barbecue and be a total hero. Or eat it with a piece of grilled salmon for dinner (yum). You know, you could plonk a soft boiled egg on this baby and call it breakfast, and I wouldn’t be mad. This is some perfectly versatile Wednesday-night food. I hope you try it!
xx Sarah.
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ¼ tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 4 rashers short-cut back bacon
- 2 small heads of little gem lettuce
- 1 punnet (about 1 cup) cherry tomatoes
- 1 ripe avocado
- juice of half a lemon
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
- To make the bacon, stir together the spices and oil in a small bowl, and then rub this mixture all over the bacon.
- Cook the bacon, either in a pan over a low heat or under the grill, until the fat has rendered and the bacon is crisp. It will look darker than usual, because of the spices.
- Set the bacon on some paper towel, to drain.
- Wash the lettuce and slice each head into 4 or 5 wedges. Lay the wedges out on a big plate.
- Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and scatter them over, and then slice the avocado in two, remove the seed and scoop out each half. Chunk or slice the avocado over the salad.
- Make a dressing by whisking the lemon juice, olive oil, a big pinch of salt (about ½ tsp) and plenty of black pepper.
- Pour the dressing over the salad, slice the bacon into large pieces and scatter them over, and then serve!
That bacon! So thick and crispy and PERFECT.
Taco bacon- BRILLIANCE! I love it :D
-Kelsey
I think I say this everytime but… insane and amazing! I love a bit of charcoal.
I am totally the house blend taco mix kinda gal. Minus kombucha but guilty of numerous olive oil types, 3 to be exact.
haha, love it! I have to confess, I probably have at least three kinds kicking around…
TACO BACON?!!! This is already my new favorite thing. YUM!
Me, upon reading that post title: “What the eff is taco bacon and why is it not already in my mouth?!” Needless to say, I’m making this stat.
I agree – bacon on a salad can make me go from, MEH to YES!! Taco salad is a fairly regular visitor to our dinner plates and I love the idea of a switch up of spiced bacon instead of ground beef. And I’m starting to think I have a fetish, but I look at this salad and I want to top it with a fried egg.
At first I thought this was going to be a salad inside of a taco shell made of bacon…but I was not far off!
Me and taco bacon are going to run away and get married. Oh my gosh!!!!
Taco Bacon! Say what? I am so down with this salad. I bet I could even get the veggie haters in my life to go for this with bacon involved!
YOU BET YOUR ASS I HAVE A HOUSE BLEND OF TACO SEASONING.
That looks so yummy!
Kari
yum! Bacon <3
OK taco bacon just blew. my. mind. This is so genius, Sarah!! Pretty sure I need to replace all the bacon in my life with taco bacon.
You had me at taco bacon. i now will only ever eat taco bacon cross my heart and hope to die.